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Monday, October 11, 2010

I missed the Sunday night football game. I'm not sure I missed anything really. It wasn't an exciting matchup and I still don't know who won.

Oh, yeah. And I haven't finished The Skeptical Juror and the Trial of Cameron Todd Willingham. I had predicted I might finish by kickoff. I also conceded I might run a few days late. I'm now predicting I will run a few days late. It's not that I couldn't have had the words on paper, metaphorically speaking. My problem is that they weren't the right words, and they weren't in the right order.

The book is still growing within me, expressing itself through my fingertips in stuttering text. Sometimes, unfortunately, those fingertips replace sentences, and paragraphs, and even entire blocks of text. Yesterday, they moved the Interlude to the Postlude. Does that make any sense?

My fingertips replace those old words with something I have never read before, something no one has ever read before. Each time, I'm mightily impressed with the results, but my fingertips never seem to be. They keep going back and changing everything, and I can't get them to stop.

I have a chapter and a half to finish, and some notes to write, but my fingertips won't cooperate. And the world moves on without me.

This Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court will listen to Hank Skinner's plea that he be allowed access to DNA evidence that might exonerate him. Given that the people of Texas wish to strap him to a gurney and inject lethal chemicals into his arm, I think it is an entirely reasonable request. Others, however, believe he is simply trying "to game the system."

This Thursday, a Court of Inquiry will continue trying to look into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Navarro County will ask for a new judge. I believe they are simply tyring "to game the system."

Next Tuesday, Frontline will air its piece on the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. A lot of people will be watching, and some of them would like to learn more about the case.

On the second day of next month, the people of Texas will elect their next governor. I hope that it will not once again be Rick Perry. With respect to that particular election, I am a single-issue guy: Rick Perry is willing to put potentially innocent people to death. For that, I believe he must be removed from office.

Perry ignored the affidavit of this country's foremost fire investigator. The affidavit made crystal clear that the evidence used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham was simply wrong. I suspect that neither Perry nor his hand-picked Board of Pardons and Paroles even bothered to read the affidavit. They gave no hint that they had done so.

With respect to the Willingham case, Rick Perry made a horrible, avoidable mistake that should cost him his political career. It cost Willingham his life. Now Rick Perry is compounding that mistake. He refuses to allow anyone to examine the DNA evidence that might prove Skinner either guilty or innocent.